Lotus E20

Pics have been released; F1 Austin's FB page has 4 pics up. It has the stepped nose, but the step is more gradual than Ferrari's. It's a better looking adaptation of the rules (not that looks count though).

Mark

 

Well IMO the drop nose doesn't look to bad on it, maybe because of it's colour way.

 

in terms of aesthetics:
MP4-27
E20
VJM05
CT01
F2012

 

+1

I guess we're about to see if "function follows form" - If it does, the Scuderia is in for a long hard season!....

Cheers,
Ian

 

+1 nice looking car!

 

Looks very much like E31. Slight changes really. Very large sidepod inlets. Good looking otherwise!

 

I have a feeling they are not going to go all out until the new motors come online. Looks slightly evolutionary. Not a big change but some. Nice car. Tells me they are not targeting a large move up the grid just yet???

 

Old design school tip: When you want to hide something, paint it black.

 

hope the Scuderia loads up on black paint

 

They said they are targeting 4th. I think Force India has a better chance. I believe Ferrari and Mercedes will have it out for 3rd/4th this year.

 

I think the stepped nose actually looks good on this car the way it is carried out.

 

Definitely the best looking car of the ugly nose group so far.
Like already mentioned maybe the black paint is helping.

From what i read their goal is the 4th place, and they were less aggressive in their innovations (unlike last year front exhaust system).
So I don't know, but I think 5th place would me more realistic, unless F.India or another surprise team is unexpectedly fast.

I expect the Redbull to have a similar nose than the E20, and I suspect the Mclaren boys to have a broken nose in their bag to test.

 

Red Bull have stated their nose will be similar to E20 but not as pronounced. I suppose we can think of it as a cross between Mclaren and E20 nose.

 

Nope - the chassis are homologated at the start of the season. Unless you mean that McLaren has an MP-28 car on the side, ready to run/test in preseason, then once the season begins McLaren is committed for the year to the chassis they homologate.

Remember the F-duct of 2010? One of McLaren's advantages with their system was that it was designed into their chassis, and the other teams could NOT just cut a couple of holes to retrofit a similar F-duct... the FIA prohibits changes to the chassis after it's homologated.

This year, with the requirement that the chassis be crash-tested before they are allowed to test (in prior years, they only had to pass the crash tests before the first race), it may even be that the homologation point came when the chassis were presented for crash-testing in December!

Either way, I'd bet that McLaren's gamble on the lower smooth nose is one that they have to live with for the entire season... similarly, if McLaren's car is faster than all the other hump-nose cars, the other teams will not be able to do anything about it, they aren't allowed to change their chassis (ie redesign it with a lower front bulkhead).

 

This is easily the best looking nose, besides the McLaren. It looks like they moved the suspension to make the "step" region longer.

 

Are Mclaren the only ones with a seemingly normal nose.

 

According to scarbs the car unveiled was simply a mock up made from last year's car...

https://twitter.com/#!/ScarbsF1/status/166553007155187712

 

Mclaren said theirs was plastic and would look very different before Australia. How many of the rest are as well?